Saturday is Observe The Moon Night

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Saturday is the International Observe The Moon Night, when the public is invited to attend programs and visit observatories that are taking part.

By Thomas J. Morgan

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Saturday is the International Observe The Moon Night, when the public is invited to attend programs and visit observatories that are taking part.

At the Sky Theatre at the Frosty Drew Observatory in Charlestown's Ninigret Park, astronomers will offer presentations about the moon, and around the grounds video demonstrations of the moon will be played showing imagery captured of the moon by Frosty Drew and other scientific institutions, including the NASA Apollo program.
The programs begin at 6 p.m. The event is free, but donations are accepted.

In addition, the Frosty Drew Nature Center will be open to the public. Naturalists will be on site to give tours of and present the brighter side of Frosty Drew.

Further details are available online or by calling 364-9508.

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Also today, the Astronomical Society of Southern New England will celebrate its annual open house, "Rehoboth Skies," at the Carpenter Museum, Rehoboth, off Route 118. The free event begins at 6 p.m.

Visitors will find a field full of astronomical telescopes of many sizes, with speakers, and activities for children.

Talks will be given on such subjects as "Naked Eye and Binocular Astronomy," "Intro to Astroimaging," "How to Choose a First Telescope" and "Learning the Sky With Your Smart Phones and Books."

The society said the night will be moonless, making targets of dim objects such as the Andromeda Galaxy, the Ring Nebula and the globular cluster M13 (a ball of 10,000 stars).

For more information about The Astronomical Society of Southern New England, "Rehoboth Skies" and directions to the Carpenter Museum, check online at .

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When archaeologist Howard Carter and his wealthy English patron Lord Carnarvon entered the tomb of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun in 1922, they found many tantalizing objects. But what they never realized was that among the treasures was an artifact of a comet.

Scientists announced this week that they have determined that a comet slammed into Egypt 28 million years ago. Any evidence of a crater eroded long ago, but the blazing heat and pressure fused sand into glass. Eons ago, a desert wanderer came across a small stone of oddly yellow hue that caught his eye. The stone found its way to the Egyptian royal court, where a skilled jeweler polished it into the shape of a sacred scarab beetle, then mounted it as the centerpiece of a brooch apparently worn by King Tut.

The brooch is the first known physical trace of a comet on Earth's surface.

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David A. Huestis, historian of the Skyscrapers Club that operates the Seagrave Memorial Observatory in Scituate, reports by email that the full Hunter's Moon occurs on Friday.

But what's more important, Huestis said, is that the evening will produce a penumbral lunar eclipse.

"For a lunar eclipse to occur, the sun, Earth and moon must be nearly in a straight line with the Earth in the middle of this alignment," he said. "The reason why lunar eclipses do not occur monthly is because the moon usually passes north or south of the Earth's shadow in space.

"Unfortunately we will not experience a partial or total lunar eclipse because the moon will not move into the Earth's darker umbral shadow. Instead, the moon will slide into a pale portion of the shadow called the penumbra. You will need to watch it closely and carefully. Many people will not notice anything different about the moon unless they have followed the eclipse's progress throughout the evening.

"Though the eclipse will begin at 5:50 p.m. (first contact), this event cannot be seen. The moon is only then beginning to slip into the dim penumbral shadow. Besides, it will have just risen at 5:47 p.m. and will be close to the horizon. Only as the eclipse progresses will an observer see a slight darkening of the lunar surface as the Earth's penumbral shadow sweeps across it from south (bottom) to north (top). Mid-eclipse, or maximum, will occur at 7:50 p.m. when 76 percent of the lunar disk will be within the penumbral shadow. At that time an informed observer should notice the subtle shading of the southern portion of the moon. The northern 24 percent will remain unchanged.

"After mid-eclipse the moon will begin to move out of the penumbral shadow and the lunar surface will brighten from north to south, returning the moon to its normal brightness at 9:49 p.m. This event, like first contact, will be unobservable. (The next total lunar eclipse visible from southern New England will occur in 2014 on April 15.)"

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Local observatories
Ladd Observatory in Providence is open every clear Tuesday night.

Margaret M. Jacoby Observatory, Community College of Rhode Island, Knight Campus, Warwick, open for four hours after dusk on clear Wednesdays.

Frosty Drew Observatory in Charlestown's Ninigret Park is open every clear Friday

Seagrave Memorial Observatory in North Scituate is open every clear Saturday night.

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